Best Laid Plans
by TheSecondEvil
Summary: Buffyficathon Entry. Buffy and Lindsey in Rome.


Title: Best Laid Plans  
  
Author: TheSecondEvil  
  
Pairing: Buffy/Lindsey  
  
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Joss, The WB, ME and probably UPN as well.  
  
Author's Note: I'm being a little flexible with the timeline here simply because I doubt that even a man with Lindsey's connections could do all the things he's supposed to have done in one week.  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
Lindsey rolled over in the bed he shared with Buffy, pulling her toward him as she slept. As he caressed her hair, he thought about how beautiful she looked like this, so natural and unfettered by the troubles that plagued her in the outside world. Sadly, she was the only one of them able to leave her troubles behind; Lindsey's haunted him every waking moment and when he closed his eyes to sleep at night all he could see before him was that smirking face.  
  
He knew he'd have to leave her, his thirst for revenge wouldn't allow him to spend the rest of his life living in Rome with the girl who had stolen his heart. Some might consider being in a relationship with the girl He sees as some kind of prize for being a good boy as revenge enough, but not Lindsey McDonald. He wanted to take Him down, he wanted Him to become disenfranchised with the shanshu prophecy, in short he wanted Him to suffer.  
  
He had been sure, ever since leaving Wolfram & Hart, to keep tabs on the law firm for his own safety and when one of his informants had told him about the change in management in L.A. Well, he had been furious to say the least. Especially after everything He had said and done to convince him that working for Wolfram & Hart was something that would cost him his humanity.  
  
So, like every incredibly capable lawyer, he had spent time preparing and planning before going out and winning his case. Some research had allowed him to discover a simple way to increase his physical strength, immediately he had envisioned himself throwing down with Him, standing over His broken, bloodied and bruised body triumphant while beneath him Angel's true face lay revealed. To accomplish this goal Lindsey had to fly out to Nepal and spend some time training under a group of mystical monks utilizing an Athenian artifact. Unfortunately for him there were a lack of opponents with vampiric strength in and around the Nepalese monastery so he had decided to postpone testing his new skills until he arrived at his next destination, Rome.  
  
He had needed to go to Rome in order to find the ink needed for the body glyphs that would keep him undetectable to Wolfram & Hart and then his carefully laid plans had fallen apart.  
  
**Two Months Ago**  
  
"You know you might want to try a less aggressive attitude with the ladies, because in my experience they don't tend to respond positively to biting." Lindsey quipped to the vampire before him who was about to snack on some unsuspecting Italian woman in the dark secluded alleyway.  
  
"Occupisi del vostro proprio commercio, se conoscete che cosa è buono per voi." The vampire snarled  
  
"Sorry, don't speak Italian." Lindsey replied as he rushed forward with inhuman speed and slugged the vampire in the stomach sending the vampire flying backwards.  
  
With a smirk Lindsey remarked, "I'm going to enjoy this." He rushed forward towards the struggling vampire and threw a right cross, the vampire staggered but managed to stay on his feet this time and returned Lindsey's punch with one of his own. They traded blows back and forth for a while until Lindsey visualized His face in front of him, this gave Lindsey the psychological edge he needed in order to pound the vampire into the ground before staking him.  
  
"What a rush" Lindsey remarked as he turned from the pile of ash, to see a gang of vampires blocking the entrance of the alleyway. "Aww, crap."  
  
"Quello era il mio fratello che avete impolverato appena, voi è dentro per un mondo di dolore."  
  
"I told your friend, I don't speak Italian"  
  
"He said 'That was my brother you just dusted' and that you were 'in for a world of pain'." The voice came from the shadows further back in the alley, it was female and if Lindsey wasn't mistaken the accent was American, probably Californian, the woman continued "Unfortunately vampires aren't the most imaginative of creatures. This one sounds like he's been watching too many action movies."  
  
As the woman stepped out of the shadows Lindsey felt a flash of recognition but could not place who she was, as there was no similar reaction that he could discern from the woman he assumed she was not someone he had met in person. Before he could ask the woman who she was he was reminded of the vampires by a blow to the back of his skull, which knocked him out cold.  
  
**Next Morning**  
  
Lindsey slowly opened his eyes, his head throbbing, to unfamiliar surroundings; he was in a room painted a pale shade of orange and directly above him hung an antique chandelier. He slowly drew himself up into a sitting position and his head started to throb, groaning he thought 'At least now I know my limits'.  
  
Just then the door opened slightly allowing a brunette teenager to pop her head around, she gave him an appraising look before disappearing behind the door and yelling "Buffy, your boy-toy is awake!"  
  
In response Lindsey heard "Dawn! I swear sometimes I wish I'd left you in England with Giles and Andrew." Then it all clicked in his head, Buffy and Dawn Summers, the Slayer and her little sister, that's where he knew the blonde from, his research into His activities pre-L.A. Well, this was certainly a nice surprise and might help him with a problem he had encountered.  
  
The door opened again, this time Buffy entered, carrying a tray with a cup of coffee and some sun dried tomato bread. "Sorry about my sister, she has open mouth disease, they're working on a cure but it doesn't look good."  
  
Lindsey smirked in response "I've got some experience in that area" off Buffy's confused look he clarified "I have two sisters myself, one of them had quite a mouth on her. What happened to me?"  
  
"Well after you took down that vamp its buddies turned up and while you were distracted by my arrival one of them hit you with a baseball bat." She replied as she handed the tray of food to Lindsey.  
  
"That ought to do it" he commented  
  
"So I brought you here, it's not like I could leave you lying in an alley, plus I was curious what your deal is?"  
  
"Thanks for the bed and board, but I better be going" as he rose from the bed Lindsey's legs gave out and he would have tumbled to the floor if Buffy hadn't caught him in time.  
  
"Woah there, you're not going anywhere for the moment." Buffy said as she helped him get back into bed "That was a pretty hard knock you took back there, why don't you rest and we'll talk later."  
  
"Okay," as she went to leave Lindsey called out "and thanks again, for everything."  
  
"Not a problem" she replied as she closed the door behind her.  
  
'Works every time' he thought as he lay back and started to tuck in to the breakfast Buffy had prepared.  
  
**The Present**  
  
He'd been so pleased with himself at that moment; he'd found another resource he could exploit and one that might even be able to keep the Rome branch of Wolfram & hart off his back if they discovered he was in the area. Of course he then had to convince her he was one of the good guys, which he managed to do over lunch the day he woke up in her apartment.  
  
**Afternoon**  
  
"So what are you?" Buffy asked  
  
"You're not one for the easy questions, are you? I'm just a guy from Texas with some power trying to do good in this world." Lindsey smirked "Helping the helpless you might say, and you, what are you?"  
  
"The- A Slayer, one of many girls chosen to fight the forces of darkness." After so long being the only one she had to adjust to the fact that now there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of women like her.  
  
"I've heard about Slayers, but I thought it was a 'one in every generation kinda deal'."  
  
"It was, there was a thing." She waved her hand dismissively  
  
"Interesting, then maybe you could help me out. There's this jar that belongs to a friend of mine, a shaman back home, and it was stolen a couple of months back. I've been tracking the jar as it's been passed from vendor to buyer all across Western Europe to it's final destination but I've never been able to get it back, it's always been too highly guarded for me to grab. With your help I might have a shot."  
  
"What's in this jar?" Buffy asked slightly suspicious  
  
"It contains a special type of body paint that makes the wearer undetectable from any kind of surveillance whether it be mystical or technological. But the paint needs to be applied in the form of specific symbols that can only be found in a particular book which the current possessor of the jar won't get until next month."  
  
"Okay, what's your plan?"  
  
"I want to wait until the owner has both the book and paint, then we can snatch both of them and I can return them to my friend."  
  
"Hey, slow down I haven't agreed to help you yet, for all I know you're trying to play me."  
  
"You find me in the middle of the night slaying vampires, a chance encounter I might add, I'm upfront about what I need your help for and yet you think I have some kind of evil agenda. You're not exactly a trusting person are you?"  
  
"I've had my hands burnt a few too many times to not be suspicious of people I don't know."  
  
"That's a rather cynical view of human behavior ya got there, I consider it my duty to adjust that attitude."  
  
She smirked "Think you're up to the challenge?"  
  
"Undoubtedly"  
  
**Present**  
  
After that they spent time together training and hunting down vampires on the streets of Rome, he moved to sleeping on the Summers' girls couch so that he was still under Buffy's watchful eye and he even helped Dawn out on her homework occasionally. They had grown close over time and by the end of his first month's stay in the Summers home he and Buffy had become lovers. Her beauty constantly amazed him and it pained him that He was the one who captured her heart first, the smug bastard. Although when he had asked her about her previous boyfriends he had gotten a bit of a shock.  
  
**One Month Ago**  
  
They were once again sitting at the restaurant where they had shared their first meal together, which now seemed such a long time ago and Buffy was talking about life in Sunnydale. Lindsey decided he could not put it off any longer. He told himself that the reason he wanted to know was to glean some insight into Him, which might come in handy, but in reality he wanted to know how he measured up to the supposed love of her life.  
  
"It sounds like your life was interesting to say the least."  
  
"King of the Understatement aren't we?"  
  
Lindsey smirked, "You must have found it difficult dating with all that stuff going on."  
  
"Ohhh, nice subtle way of bringing up the exes there." Buffy smiled  
  
"Wasn't it?"  
  
"Top marks."  
  
"So..." He pushed  
  
"There were a couple of serious relationships but none of them are in the picture any more." She said in a voice tinged with sadness and regret.  
  
"Really?" He asked doubtfully  
  
"Really. They're so out of the picture they're not even in the gallery, and I so didn't pull that off did I?" She finished  
  
"No, but top marks all the same." He grinned and then his expression sobered "What happened?"  
  
"Well, one of them recently got a job that I don't approve of, one of them got married, and the other one." She broke off "The other one died."  
  
Lindsey was intrigued "How?"  
  
Buffy gave a little chuckle "How else? Saving the world. Although it was certainly a surprise." Her brow started to crease in thought "He always had a thing about saving the world, that wasn't what surprised me, it was the self-sacrificing that surprised me. She added quietly "I didn't think he had it in him."  
  
"Sometimes people surprise you." Lindsey replied  
  
"Yeah, anyway," she started snapping herself out of her mournful state "what about you? What skeletons have you got in your closet?"  
  
'You really don't want to know.' He thought, "There was this one girl a while back, but I'm not sure you could call it a relationship. She was using me." Buffy made a sympathetic face. "Don't feel sorry for me, I was well aware I was being used," he shrugged "it just didn't matter to me."  
  
"Surely, that's worse, being with someone who is using you and being with them despite that?"  
  
"Maybe" Lindsey admitted ruefully  
  
"Anyway I thought we came here because you had news on your jar."  
  
"Right, of course. The book containing the information on the symbols has arrived at Ferreira Manor. I did some reconnaissance and found out that both the book and jar are being held in a guarded room on the second floor."  
  
"Wait a second, rewind. Ferreira Manor, as in THE Ferreira's, as in Don Ferreira?"  
  
"Did I forget to mention that?" Lindsey sipped his drink  
  
"You seriously want to break into the house of the head of the Demon Mafia?"  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
"You're crazy!"  
  
"You know it baby and you love me for it."  
  
Buffy smirked "You really think we can do this."  
  
"Well, we might need someone's help, but you're not going to like it."  
  
"You better not be thinking of Dawn."  
  
"You're very perceptive, I know there was a reason I loved you."  
  
Buffy raised her eyebrow "And hear I thought you loved me for my body."  
  
"That too. I'm going to be doing this with or without yours and Dawn's help, but without you I've got a much better chance of getting caught. So, it's your decision."  
  
**Present**  
  
She stirred in his arms and mumbled "Double Chocolate Chip Cookies" before rolling over to face him. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes before opening them and giving him a small grin.  
  
"Hey"  
  
"Hey yourself."  
  
"Whatcha thinking about?"  
  
"The day we pulled off the heist of the jar and book from the Ferreira's." Lindsey grinned "And then what came after."  
  
"Baby, don't say heist. It doesn't work for you."  
  
"Okay, but go back to sleep, you're going to need your rest for tomorrow."  
  
"What's happening tomorrow?" She enquired  
  
"It's a surprise," he whispered before pulling her close and enveloping her with his arms.  
  
"I hate surprises," Buffy mumbled as she drifted off to sleep  
  
Lindsey knew that she was really going to hate this one, he had to leave her there was no other way. But still this little voice in his head persisted that maybe there was another way, maybe he could tell her the truth, it wasn't like she was a big fan of His current position. She might see it as bringing Him back down to Earth, which would make it acceptable to her and then he could have both his vengeance and her. The problem was it might seem like a workable plan in his head but in reality he knew it would never work, instead he would let her know of his journey back home and that it was great while it lasted. She would be hurt, there was nothing he could do about that but she would get over it in time, love like vengeance diminished over time. 


End file.
